Le Studium Conference

Introduction

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are pluripotent cells obtained by the development of a technique of reprogrammation of somatic cells using 4 defined factors. Such spectacular feature deserved the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012. iPSCs have provoked a true revolution in the fields of Biological Sciences and Medicine. Scientists started to being able to access neurons derived from somatic cells (i.e. skin fibroblasts) of patients with neurological illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and use it as models for research laboratory studies. iPSCs opened new avenues for a better understanding about human cell differentiation, and for the ex vivo development of human organs. Besides, iPSCs brought new hopes for the development of cell therapies for conditions such as blindness and liver and kidney diseases. More recently, Scientists could obtain «mini-organs» from iPSCs. These three-dimensional structures mimic human organs, allowing a unique opportunity to access whole organs affected in different pathologies. Moreover, iPSCs derived from patients with the most diverse diseases are a highly attractive tool for screenings selecting new medicines from libraries with thousands of compounds.